Editor

Sandro Ottoni - Ilica 8 10000 Zagreb - Croatia - tel.fax. **3851.277959

e-mail S.Ottoni@agora.stm.it - WWW-Url: http//:www.agora.stm.it/pr -

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(B); tel. +32-2-2304121, fax +32-2-2303670.

Published in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian.

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TIBET: THOUSANDS OF CITIZENS ALL OVER EUROPE AT THE BRUSSELS DEMONSTRATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN TIBET. SIMILAR DEMONSTRATIONS TOOK PLACE IN MOSCOW AND WASHINGTON. 600 THE CITIES AND WORLD CAPITALS THAT ADHERED TO THE INITIATIVE OF THE RAISING OF THE TIBETAN FLAG.

MINISTRIES OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS AND PREFECTURES OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES INTERVENED MASSIVELY TO BLOCK THE INITIATIVES AND PREVENT MAYORS FROM DISPLAYING THE FLAG, FOLLOWING PRESSURES FROM THE CHINESE EMBASSIES

Reports and press releases on the next number of Tibet-Fax (n.15)

CUBA: ARRESTED AND REPATRIATED THE SPANISH RADICAL BEGONIA RODRIGUEZ

Havana, 19/25 February - A high tension climate characterized the visit of Begonia Rodriguez, coordinator of the radical activity in Spain, to the exponents of the Cuban opposition, working on the first meeting of the oppositions. The meeting was forbidden and obstructed by the regime with various measures: arrests of the best known exponents, homes surrounded by the police, raids, intimidations and defamation campaigns.

In this situation, Rodriguez has nevertheless met with the few opposition leaders still around, worried about the increase in repression and unsure about the initiatives to undertake. On Friday night, soon after she got back to the house where she was a guest, Begonia was arrested by the police with a pretext regarding her tourist visa. Locked in an apartment she spent the following 24 hours in isolation and hunger strike in protest. At 11pm of Saturday, after the mobilization organized by the radicals, she was visited by the Spanish Consul who informed her of the expulsion and her departure for Madrid, the following day, a departure that would take place regularly but without first paying $50 for detention expenses!

On her return to Madrid, Begonia Rodriguez declared:

"Cuba is not, at the present moment, a communist dictatorship in evolution. It is a very hard dictatorship, powerful and sustained by repressive capillary organizations and forbidden from evolving.

Any outside help will only serve to strengthen the repression apparatus. For this reasons, the only possible dialogue is that of firmness and the request of definite gestures such as the release of the political prisoners or the concession of real reforms: amnesty, reform of the civil and criminal code. It is only in exchange of these concerted actions that international help should be provided"

CUBA: LETTER OF FRANCISCO CHAVIANO TO EMMA BONINO.

The political prisoner Francisco Chaviano Gonzales, detained in Cuba, at Punto del Est, and convicted to fifteen years of prison for his information activity on the desparecidos, a 1996 member of the Radical Party, sent a long letter to Emma Bonino and to the Radical Party, where, besides thanking for the initiatives in his favor, he denounces the total closure of the Castro regime, the prison conditions both his and of other detainees, sentenced to grave punishments for ridiculous crimes, and invites the European Union to continue its policy of openness toward Cuba but with less naivete and more decisiveness.

UNITED NATIONS: APPEAL FOR A PERMANENT INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

The first adhesions have been received in support of an appeal by parliamentarians, spread by the Radical Party and addressed to the Secretary General of the United Nations and to the Preparatory Committee for the establishment of the International Court. The appeal intend to solicit the development of the works and to encourage a positive solution.

The Deputies that have signed up to date are 72 (European Parliament: 50; Bulgaria: 11; Croatia: 1; Luxembourg: 1; Rumania: 7; Russia: 2; Ukraine: 1)

USA/ABOLISHMENT OF THE DEATH PENALTY: A DELEGATION FROM "HANDS OFF CAIN" VISITS THE ARM OF DEATH OF ANGOLA PRISON, IN LOUISIANA

Baton Rouge/Louisiana 8.2.96 - In a series of meetings to promote the initiatives of "Hands Off Cain" an international league for the abolishment of the death penalty, a delegation led by its secretary Sergio D'Elia, visited Angola Prison, a maximum security prison, used for capital executions. Here the delegation has been able to visit the prison, the deathrow cells and the execution chamber with the bed for the lethal injection. At the end, the delegation met with two deathrow inmates. D'Elia has later prepared an ample report for the Italian weekly Panorama of the 29 of February.

DATES

Russia 11.2.96 - About 120 people participated to the public assembly of the Radical Party that took place at the Moscow Soil Institute, in Moscow. During the meeting it was presented the radical campaign for the human rights in Tibet, thanks to the participation of Navang Rabgyal, representative of the Dalai Lama in Russia, of the support initiatives and a march that will take place in Moscow and at the same time in Brussels and Washington.

Afterwards, they illustrated and discussed the activity of the ARA (Anti-militarist Radical Association) in favor of the conscientious objectors, against the war in Chechnia, and the initiatives in support for an international language and the abolishment of the death penalty all over the world. Three TV stations and other journalists were present.

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Starting with this issue, we begin to highlight the names of personalities from the political and cultural world who in the recent days joined the 1996 Radical Party:

* from Albania:

- Rudolf MARKU, MP, first signatory of the resolution for human rights in Tibet at the Albanian parliament.

* from Bosnia-Herzegovina:

- Nedjelko DESPOTOVIC, Minister without portfolio for Economic affairs.

- Adil KULENOVIC, Editor of Studio 99 (a Sarajevo radio-TV).